Arheled the Warden
'' “A human’s essence is himself as alive, body and soul; with no body, his essence is halved, it is not whole. I am not like that. I do not ‘die’."'' '' “Are you an angel?”'' '' “An angel is a spirit, Forest. And a spirit is an intellectual substance, devoid of matter. It is not so with me. My essence is commingled with matter, but not as your body; if that matter is wrecked, my essence is not sundered. So, no, Arheled cannot be killed. Only destroyed.”'' ---Arheled to Forest, during his descent into Forest's mind, Book 3, Ch. 7 Arheled (pronounced Ar-he-led) is the usual name taken on by the being who commands the Road and generals the resistance to the oncoming of the Lord of Chaos at the end of the world, after the imperishable crystal that forms the Walls of Night. BIOGRAPHY: How old Arheled is has never been revealed; he says himself only that "I stood in the void and longed for it to fill; and I stood in the chaos and longed for it to struct." This seems to imply that he is as old as the Music itself, though not as old as the Gods. When the Gods sang the Road into being to govern the surface of the World, Arheled asked for and was given the position of its' steersman and defender. In this capacity he was instrumental in the long war with the Lord of Chaos, sometimes walking in the form of one or another God, sometimes acting on his own in the shadows where the Gods did not walk. The Stars revered him as the King of the Road, and paid him due homage as such when he walked among them. When the World was Bent and made round, Arheled began the Returning of the Road: every hundred years he sent it down to Earth, to pull the wandering globe back into position as it were. Thus he became aware of a threat to the place it Returned to, the Temple Fell: a race of magicians known only as Morku had come to the Fell and used the power of the very Road itself to drive a gateway through space and matter, until they penetrated to the foundations of Utumno, the gates of Hell. Arheled drove them back, but could not break the Gates; and so he made league with a band of wayfaring Numenoreans, and they built the Tower of the Tree on Pratt Hill. For several centuries the Men of the Tower kept back the Morku with the aid of the Garda that dwelt in the Connecticut Valley. So the Morku called down a Star from the sky, and came secretly into the Tower, and overthrew it, making by black magic the Stone of Death. The Road wrought into being the Wild Man to hold the Temple Fell, and together with Arheled he held the Gates. The Ice Age came upon the world, called down by the Stone of Death to destroy the Garda and the Temple Fell. As the Ice ground upon the North, the Sun and Stars and Arheled tried to melt it from New England, but the power of the Stone was too great, and the Ice prevailed. In the great disaster known as the Rebellion of the Stars, Arheled found out about the gathering war too late, and when he came onto the field of the sky he saw Angar unseen, and from him was coming the madness that drove on the Stars; and he strode upon him in the full strength of the Road and his own majesty. But inside Angar was the Lord of Chaos, and he was greater than Arheled. As Arheled said to Brooke, "Then he violated me, Brooke. Then his mind raped mine. Then I learned about pain, and suffering..." The Herald freed him with his first arrow. After the Great Flood that occurred at the same time, in which the face of the world changed drastically, Arheled kept his activities mainly to New England, as mankind was growing only slowly and was confined to the Old World at first, and the Morku were dead. When he first began to call the Children of the Road is not known. He is also suspected to be the one who put a spell of slumber on Finteine the Old, who slept save for a week each year. Around the fourth century AD, after the death and glorification of St. Nicholas, Arheled in tandem with him forged the Polar Express and made enchanted rail tracks across the world for it. By means of this selected children were summoned to the North Pole on Christmas Eve midnight and taught many secrets; and it is from these that many of the great figures of each age arose. Arheled himself at first was the Engineer, but when the Red Elves besought him to be allowed to man the Train, he appointed two as Engineer and Fireman, and stayed on as Guard until the first Conductor was trained. Afterwards he would appear quite at random as the wisecracking slang-slinging Hobo. In the later 1500s Arheled arranged for Finteine the Old to beget a son, named Wayham, whom Arheled transplanted to the wilderness of New England. Under the name of "Wayfinder" Arheled spoke much with him. Wayham was the first of the Children of the Road, and when he strayed onto the Roads of the Stars Arheled planted within him the last fruit of the White Tree of Gondor, causing Wayham to slowly turn into a tree. In 1695 Arheled gave Pentham Midwinter an ancient watch and told him to bequeath it to his younger sons, until he should call for it, and gave him as well the Lore of the house of Midwinter. In the meantime Arheled began the construction of six forts of power, reaching through all Nine Heres (layers of physical space) up to the very Rooftops of Time, which were anchored and manifested in Winsted as the Five Stone Churches in the first decades of the twentieth century. When he entombed the Nine Lords of the Night in the Transplanted Land is not yet known. In 1941, on a typical trip to the North Pole, Arheled manifested as the Hobo and aided a young boy in his travel up the roof of the train. He spoke of himself as "the king of the Polar Express; in fact, I am the King...of the North..POLE!!" An excellent example of his "calling" is given in their dialogue. in 1943, however, the powers of Secularism, fuelled by the Sword of the Solstice, found a way to duplicate Christmas magic with antiChristmas magic and invade the North Pole itself. St. Nicholas and Arheled were hampered by the fact that several of their Rules came into conflict at this point, forcing them to evacuate the North Pole via the Polar Express and destroy the tunnel of the Undercontinental Line behind them. The Elf engineer refused to divert the Polar Express away from the North Pole, resulting in it becoming "lost" for a hundred years. In the alternate storyline of my book "Merry Christmas" the Polar Express, a hundred years later, is recovered and Arheled sends his Road to rescue Charles Hogan from the power of the Store. The Road takes Charles to the Graves of Arheled, his normal residence, where Arheled speaks with Charles and welcomes the Flight of the Snowmen from around the world to the North Pole. But riding on their backs is the Season's Greetings Army instead of children. Arheled sends the Road to the North Pole, where St. Nicholas and the Red Elves wage a dreadful battle and eventually conquer. The next year Arheled is taken captive by the Secular Santa, who vampires Christmas power by virtue of aping it and builds a false modern Polar Express, and imprisons St. Nicholas and Arheled himself. Arheled reveals he did this in order to get inside their fortress, and calls the Road, which slices the factory in half. He also reveals himself to several boys inside the underground passages beneath Merriweather Farm, warning them back. In 2011, the year of the Road's most recent (and, it is to be feared, last) Returning, Arheled has embarked on a sweeping and far-reaching campaign. From every source and every corner he is gathering the powers of good to withstand the onset of the Lord of Chaos. To this end he called Six Children of the Road instead of Three, and awoke the Road to be strong within them, and let loose upon Winsted it's Wild Man. During the Fell Winter of 2010 he began to manifest in Winsted as a sturdy man of indeterminate age, dressed in brown corduroy and wearing a silver scarf and brown leather coat, like any eccentric who cuts wood and hunts and ice fishes. Under this guise he began to sow mysterious words in Forest and in Lara and in Ronnie Wendy, as well as Travel Lane. Brooke and Bell were drawn into the mystery by clues he dropped them. As the spring progressed they began unwinding the many threads he left them, glimpsing the great mystery of the Road and the Rebellion of the Stars. In the process he became aware that Cornello was also active in Winsted, and many careful moves and counter-moves were made by the two great adversaries behind the scenes, using the Children of the Road as a stage and battleground. When Peter Midwinter was captured by the police due to Cornello's manipulation of the police captain, Arheled sent the Wild Man to bust him out. The Wild Man was so unsubtle Arheled then had to do damage control by tricking computers and "walking in many minds" until everyone was convinced there'd been a terrorist attack. He also sent both Forest and Mrs. Lake a shared dream, which jolted Mrs. Lake enough for Forest's relentless pressure to force her to marry his father, Hunter Light. As March came, Arheled wove the threads of the Children of the Road closer together, until he summoned them all to Temple Fell where they met for the first time and he at last revealed who he was. From there he sent them to seek the Signs of the Nine Hills, some of which he had planted and others of which had come into being by themselves. Along the way he revealed more and more terrible things and greater secrets to them, until at length the Signs were uncovered as summer began. There he shared a picnic at Soldier's Tower with the Children and the Wild Man. Not much later, Brooke held captive by Kevin was rescued by the Wild Man. He claimed as prize her virginity, but Arheled intervened before he could take her. Arheled then challenged Wild to a physical fist fight to determine whether or not he would have his way with Brooke. "In the forms we now wear and what strength is in them, unaided by our mighty powers." It was a near thing, but Arheled won the fight. During the great confrontation between the Wild Man and Cornello, Arheled appeared only at the end, when he remonstrated with Wild that to challenge Cornello had been foolish. Wild retorted angrily that Arheled had permitted Brooke's rape. Arheled admitted the charge. "Even as my Master, so must I: permit a great evil that a greater good may happen." After the temporary binding of Cornello, Mrs. Lane broke him free by capturing several Children of the Road. Arheled while speaking with Bell was attacked by Mrs. Lane in a huge enchanted motorboat. He fought with her under the water, scuttling her boat. But as there were too many humans around, he was limited in how much power he could use and had to let her go. She then captured Bell. When the Children were at the point of death from the chill of the chamber, Lara was teleported in by the Road. Using the others as hostages Mrs. Lane forced Lara to lift the cold-spell on Cornello. The Children of the Road overcame her and escaped, but she overtook them and defeated them. At this point Arheled appeared. Mrs. Lane taunted that he could not use enough power to overcome her. Arheled commanded the Children to cover their eyes and cast off his guise, revealing his full power. So alien was the vision that the Children were knocked half senseless. He burnt the dragon out of her and she besought him to kill her while she was still human. "He will find me; he never lets a dragon die." Arheled granted her wish and cremated her. In July Arheled sent Ronnie and Travel and the Wild Man to fetch the Ring of Barahir. When the Dragon-born were awakened by Cornello, Arheled unleashed the Wild Man, who spent the night terrorizing Winsted by haunting every street and jugging cop cars. In August Arheled came to Forest's island. Forest had had his memories of growing up with Bell removed by dragon-spell, and so when she destroyed one of his paintings he became her enemy and turned himself permanently invisible. worrying her and his parents nearly crazy. Arheled reproached him, and at the last decided the only way to conquer Forest's hatred was to descend, Inception-style, into his mind and there unlock the spell that held his memories. They descended through many fantastic and bewildering levels of imagination, battling dog-men, a riddling and treacherous dragon, and trees with firey swords. Arheled's power decreased the lower they went, while Forest's increased. At last Forest was able to break loose the buried memories, ending the spell. Unable to use full power while inside another's mind, Arheled was reduced to "magic tricks" such as a burning sword, manipulating his own gravity, sneezing-dust and melting locks. As autumn drew on, Arheled took to standing alone and motionless in front of his concealed cabin in front of Inmdian Meadow, watching the Gates and tending the Road, while his form grew mold and moss. There Lara and Forest found him, and besought his aid in finding Lara's missing sister. Arheled responded by sending the Children of the Road underneath the earth to stop if they could the incarnation of Chaos. He increased their power till they each wielded the full strength of the Road in their particular department. Yet it was not enough. While they were gone, Arheled teleported their families inside the fortified Lane house lest they be used as hostages and called awake the Three Elders to defend it. Peter Midwinter he called by demanding the watch. Grandmother Lane recieved a mysterious dinner gust, who revealed he was Wayfinder. Hunter Light at first was skeptical, untill Arheled revealed a shadow of his true glory. Halfway through the Seige of the Lane house, Arheled came and sent Wayham on a quest to seek out his father's sword. The Wild Man came to him on Halloween and angrily reproached him that Chaos was too strong and his incarnation was proceeding unchecked. He threatened to dethrone Arheled from the Road and send it down himself if Arheled would not act. This led to a clash of power, as both beings revealed their fullest nature, Wild as a giant drawing the very hills into himself till he stood a mile high, Arheled as a figure of blue light bearing him down. Arheled was greater. As the Wild Man stood, defeated, patiently and tragically awaiting the tortures he expected for rebellion, Arheled shocked him by pardoning him completely. Stirred by this, Wild vowed his fealty. "Hitherto I served thee in fear...henceforth I serve thee in love." When Ronnie was cast into a coma by trying to use his Penance Stare on Cornello, Travel took him to Arheld's house. There Arheled had Forest paint him athelas, which had gone extinct, which pulled Ronnie out of his coma. Arheled then engaged in an odd sort of therapy, keeping Ronnie busy sawing wood. He sent him forth with a cloak as Grim Ronnie. On Christmas Eve at midnight, the Children of the Road gathered at the Second Altarstone of Temple Fell. There Arheled met them as they stood upon the Road, and led them along it, showing them as they travelled the full story of the Rebellion of the Stars and finishing with a terrible vision of the nature and structure of reality itself. This taking them to the end of the mountain, he dismissed them to their homes and wished them a Merry Christmas. NATURE Arheled describes himself as venda, ''a word in Gordundonic (his preferred language) meaning "alien-strange-weird-fay-uncanny-unhuman" but which also is a noun classifying magical or preternatural beings other than human but less than angels. To be classed as ''venda, a being must have some connection with matter by nature. The intellectual substances known as angels are above this class. It is evident at once that Arheled must be very high indeed in this order, higher perhaps than any other. "My essence is commingled with matter, but not as yours; if that matter is destroyed, I do not die." He has also said that he is alone in the plan of God, that no other of his nature and kind was ever made. With the angelic power of the Road, Arheled is mightier than many lesser Angels, indeed equal to those in the higher Choirs. When the Children of the Road were near him when he revealed his full nature, they not only covered their eyes but burrowed into the dirt trying to escape his radiance; the sheer alienness of his nature pressed on them and ripped breath from their lungs. Trees fell slowly, shivered by the very disclosing of his essence. POWER This in consequence gives him almost unlimited abilty to wield and command matter at its' foundations, the same way as angels do; limited, it seems, only by his strength and by the Rules he follows. He can assume any form of any size, and unmake entire galaxies with a single blast of command, or worse. He has also immense spiritual power, both with and against minds; he "walks in dreams" and speaks to minds, can move objects or himself vast distances either along the spiritual plane of the Road or directly through the Unseen--"teleporting"--in a blink of thought. As well, he is able to walk freely among the nine overlaying physical dimensions, even up to the Rooftops of Time; though like all beings he cannot walk into the future, nor meddle outside the Present. Nor, being venda and not angelic, can he ascend above Time, farther up than the Suspended Realms of the Sixth Dimension (angels inhabit the Seventh). He is, in his power over minds, limited by the usual conditions even the strongest angel suffers: he cannot compel the freedom of the will, nor penetrate the secret heart without direct leave of God, nor meddle overmuch in the operation of the mind. Arheled, like all spiritual beings and beings of power who deal with humans, is bound by "Rules" which he cannot overstep save in certain circumstances. "I have more things to do than you will ever come to know. I have rules to keep in mind that you would never comprehend." This at times causes him to act in ways that seem not only heartless but entirely manipulative, such as allowing Brook to be date-raped by Kevin so that she would finally, in the trauma, shatter the mental block the dragons had put in her that kept the power of the Road from entering her. When this happened she called up a whole lake upon Kevin. It is also the reason he sometimes does absolutely nothing where it would seem action was not only needed but required. When the Rules are hampering him from acting in any one situation, he has even been taken captive and tortured rather than break the Rules, or allowed friends to die and kingdoms to fall. As Warden of the Road he governs the physical functions of the surface of Earth, ruling the Road and all that it commands, though many other beings are responsible for more particular aspects of this. In character Arheled is usually reflective and thoughtful, with a quiet profoundity of speech and a sober remote clearness of expression, blended with a quirky warmth of humor that erupts in sudden wisecracks or seemingly silly jokes. He is very kind and merciful, but ultimately inflexible, especially towards people who are strong or stubborn, or evil. He takes challenges very seriously; when Brooke challenged him with not understanding her torment, he laid bare his most terrible memory, of being posessed by Chaos. Running through all this is the sadness and pity of an immortal of great wisdom gazing at the tiny but precious and passing mortal things. At times, if provoked, he becomes not only angry but terrible beyond measure. APPEARANCES When Arheled manifests he frequently takes the form of the Man in Brown, a humerous eccentric in his thirties with dark hair and beard stubble, wearing brown leather coat and brown pants. As he revealed more of himself this form became more majestic, often cloaked in white, with burning eyes, and the hair was often silver. This form, like most of his bodily manifestations, has a preferred method of disappearing by crumbling into powdery snow, though he can vanish in any manner he chooses. Other times he has given himself the name of Wayfinder, under which name the House of Lane primarily knew him and Grandmother Lane long sought for him. As the Hobo of the Polar Express he appeared as a youngish man with beard stubble and short dark hair, roughly thirty, with a flat cap and typical 1920s hobo outfit, including the paraphernalia of coffepot and crates and bandanas, speaking in a rough husky and often sinister voice. He seems to have played this role with immense relish, slinging around every form of slang known to man and mocking everything from Santa to his hearers. The mysterious being Glooskap of Indian legend who taught the Indians what culture they knew, is suspected to be another of Arheled's activities; as well as the shadowy woodsman of "Pooduck Island" who accompanies the ghost of Squando and speaks in haunting songs to Solo in the woods of Maine. In the Graves of Arheled he appears as a quiet oldish man in denim and a sheepskin jacket and flat cap, roughened by work, with a ruminative quiet way of speaking and often a stern but concealed wisdom. When angered his usual habit is to blaze with blue light, and when he reveals his power he is always blue and white. It was as a huge figure of blue light that he battled Wild, and when he cast aside his mantle and showed his full nature to Mrs. Lane as he burned the dragon out of her, the radiance of his nature was so powerful it shattered the nearby trees and burned the eyes of the Children of the Road, even with their faces buried in the ground. (Back to Characters)